Lady M. Ay.
Macb. Hark!—
Who lies i' the second chamber?
Macb. This is a Sony sight [Looking on his hands.
There's one did laugh in his deep, and one cried 'murder!'
That they did wake each other; I stood and heard them,
Bat they did say their prayers, and addressed them
Again to sleep.
Lady M.There are two lodged together.
Macb. One cried, 'God bless us!' and, 'Amen,' the other;
As they had seen me, with these hangman's hands,
Listening their fear. I could not say, 'Amen'
When they did say, 'God bless us.'
Lady M. Consider it not so deeply.
Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce 'Amen?'
I had most need of blessing, and 'Amen?'
Stuck in my throat."
Thas does God raise up great geniuses, and gift them with intuition to see, as by a kind of spirit-presence, the secret thoughts of wicked men, and tell them to the world.
Fancy conceives: imagination sees: reason reflects and philosophizes. Of Shakspeare's reasoning and philosophizing power we have abundant proof in exquisite passages scattered throughout his writings, which in a single verse or sentence contain a whole homily. For instance:
"Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in its head."
But the drama of Hamlet may be considered almost as a philosophical poem, so pervaded is it throughout with this strain of thought. Its hero philosophizes and moralizes upon every thing, and often indeed loses himself in reflection when he should be busy in action:
